Spider mites infestation at harvest time

[Rami]

I pulled down my bine to harvest and was quite upset to find such an infestation of what turned out to be spider mites. Here are some close-ups and one through a magnifying glass of the little buggers.

I assume I'm at a full loss here. Most of the cones are eaten through. Wish I caught this earlier. Any advice?

 

[nagmay]

"I assume I'm at a full loss here"

That sucks, but I wouldn't throw out the hops if I were you. The mites will likely leave during the drying process ... and even if they don't, it won't affect the flavor of the beer.

 

[day_trippr]

I'd be surprised if the mites are actually eating the cones. I think they're suckers rather than chewers. I had an acute breakout of two-spotted spider mites last year on my Cascades, the damned things were basically sucking the life out of the leaves and mummifying the whole plant with webbing. But they never actually "ate" anything - no cone damage or anything.

Luckily this happened a few weeks before harvest so I had time to blast the bastids off with hose spray then hit the survivors with insecticide soap. By the time the harvest was due the plants were squeaky clean (and no off-flavors, fortunately).

I have a few cones that have similar gnawing marks, but no mites anywhere this year...

Cheers!